UPDATED 2/20/2010 Eleven Pacific-region congressmen and women have joined Los Angeles Representative Grace Napolitano in writing California Senator Dianne Feinstein asking her to withdraw her proposed rider to a pending jobs bill that could quadruple Bay-Delta water deliveries to powerful farm interests on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The House group, several of them members of the Subcommittee on Water and Power chaired by Napolitano, wrote on the grounds that the Delta water exports demanded by Feinstein risk annihilation of the Pacific salmon fishery and at the same time could up-end years of hard-fought negotiations to produce pending water reform legislation in California.

Feinstein responds to critics, if not their criticisms, in today’s San Francisco Chronicle.

UPDATE Friday February 19, 2010: In response to pressure from House Democrats, Feinstein may withdraw her controversial rider, though corporate backers from the Westlands Water District are still counting on extra water from their powerful senate ally, reports the Fresno Bee. The Contra Costa Times has Feinstein writing a “Dear George” letter to Representative George Miller, lead author of the Congressional protest. Aquafornia has the full Pacific salmon storm, plus reports of rain.

UPDATE Saturday February 20, 2010: Mike Taugher of the Contra Costa Times asks if Senator Feinstein gets the water that she seeks, might it not ultimately come from a state-controlled system that serves Southern Californian cities? And what does this mean for state environmental standards? To keep reading, click here.